These slides were presented during the SEMrush webinar "How to Find Blog Topics Your Audience REALLY Cares About". You can watch the replay here >>> https://www.semrush.com/webinars/how-to-find-blog-topics-your-audience-really-cares-about/

1. Topics flow from sales to marketing

2. Topics flow from sales to marketing
Content flows from marketing to sales

3. @crestodina
source: “Determining the informational, navigational and transactional intent of Web queries” Bernard Jansen, et al
Online searches by type
Informational
Transactional
Navigational

4. @crestodina
Online searches by type
Informational
Transactional
Navigational
?
$
brand
source: “Determining the informational, navigational and transactional intent of Web queries” Bernard Jansen, et al

5. They want info.
We want leads.

6. @crestodina

7. @crestodina
source: keywordtool.io

8. @crestodina source: answerthepublic.com

9. source: answerthepublic.com

10. Quora.com

11. Quora.com

12. @crestodina
Topics and focal distance

13. @crestodina
Topics and focal distance
Is Beer At
Work a
Dumb Idea?
Awesome
Office Kitchens
Top 10
Office Perks

14. @crestodina
Answer all the
related questions
source: answerthepublic.com

15. @crestodina

16. @crestodina
THE REPORT OF
BROKEN DREAMS
How is your website unsatisfying?

17. Behavior > Site Search > Search Terms

18. Behavior > Site Search > Search Terms

19. Behavior > Site Search > Search Terms

20. Behavior > Site Search > Search Terms

21. Behavior > Site Search > Search Terms

22. Behavior > Site Search > Search Terms

23. @crestodina
1. Search for each phrase yourself. Find it?
2. Your page isn’t ranking? Optimize it!
3. You don’t have a page? Create it!
4. Adjust your navigation to help visitors find
things faster
ACTION: Insights from the Site Search report

24. @crestodina
Which pages have ranking potential?
Find the low hanging fruit!

25. How can we make more of these?
Initial spike from
email and social
(one week)
Daily visits from
organic search
(months or years)

26. @crestodina
Acquisition > Search Console > Queries

27. @crestodina
Acquisition > Search Console > QueriesAcquisition > Search Console > Queries

28. @crestodina
Acquisition > Search Console > Queries

29. @crestodina
Acquisition > Search Console > Queries

30. @crestodina
Acquisition > Search Console > Queries

31. SEMrush

32. How high
are we ranking?

33. How high are
we ranking?
Current ranking
for phrase: #9

35. The Control + F Test

38. Semantic SEO: Work in the related phrases…

39. answerthepublic.com

41. @crestodina
ACTION: Optimize the “almost high-ranking” pages
1. Search for the phrase. Find the page. Confirm the rank.
2. Improve the page by adding detail, keywords,
examples, images, video, internal linking, etc.

42. @crestodina
This really works...

43. @crestodina
Make the best page on the
internet for your topic

44. @crestodina
The Power of
Original Research

45. Amazing
Contributor
Weak
Contributor
Perceived Content PerformanceActual Content Performance

46. source: Moz, BuzzSumo

47. @crestodina
Most content gets
no links and few shares
source: BuzzSumo, Moz

48. ...if you want to create content that achieves a high level of both
shares and links then you should concentrate on
opinion forming, authoritative content...
or well researched and evidenced content.

49. ...if you want to create content that achieves a high level of both
shares and links then you should concentrate on
strong opinions
original research

51. @crestodina
Three ways to produce research
1. Observation: Pick a data set. Gather data.

52. @crestodina
Three ways to produce research
1. Observation: Pick a data set. Gather data.
2. Aggregation: Combine data from existing sources

53. @crestodina
Three ways to produce research
1. Observation: Pick a data set. Gather data.
2. Aggregation: Combine data from existing sources
3. Survey: Mass outreach and analysis

54. observe

57. @crestodina

61. aggregate

63. source: Orbit Media

64. source: Orbit Media

65. @crestodina

66. @crestodina

67. survey

69. source: 2018 Blogger Survey, Orbit Media

72. “What do people in our industry
often say but rarely support?”

73. Find the missing stat

74. source: State of Original Research, Mantis
Have you published original
research in the last 12 months?
Only 47% of companies publish original research

75. @crestodina
10x Effort = 100x Results

76. Don’t take shortcuts;
they take too long.
Sonia Simone
CCO, Copyblogger Media

77. @crestodina #eventname
1 in 5 bloggers
does things differently

78. source: 2018 Blogger Survey